Baldur's Gate III
Baldur's Gate III is an upcoming role-playing video game developed and published by Larian Studios for Microsoft Windows and the Stadia streaming service. It is the third main game in the ''Baldur's Gate'' series, itself based on the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing system. Gameplay Baldur's Gate III is anticipated to be a computer role-playing game with both a single-player and cooperative multiplayer element. Single players will be able to create one or more characters and form a party with them and computer-generated characters to explore the game's story. Optionally, players will be able to take one of their characters and team up online with one or more other players to form a party together. Development The original Baldur's Gate game was developed by BioWare and Black Isle Studios, and published by Interplay Entertainment in 1998. The game used a licensed version of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) ruleset, specifically in the Forgotten Realms setting. The game's success led to a sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, and its expansion pack, as well as Icewind Dale and its sequel, and Planescape: Torment. Black Isle Studios had begun work on a further sequel, Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound by 2003 but Interplay faced significant financial crisis that year and shut down Black Isle, cancelling the game. Interplay then lost the license to make D&D video games to Atari by 2008 who released Neverwinter Nights and its sequel. Wizards of the Coast had long since acquired the rights to D&D as part of their purchase of TSR, and had been making updates to the core rulesets over the previous years. The new sequel from Larian Studios has no connection to the cancelled Baldur's Gate III: The Black Hound. The series' intellectual property (IP) had been sought after by multiple developers; according to Brian Fargo, a former Interplay developer and founder of inXile Entertainment, both he and Feargus Urquhart of Obsidian Entertainment had been seeking the IP rights for at least a decade. Larian Studios had been interested in making a sequel in the Baldur's Gate series for some time, having first approached Wizards after their release of Divinity: Original Sin around 2014. At this time, Wizards felt the studio was still too new to the industry to be trusted with the Baldur's Gate license. Larian continued to develop Divinity: Original Sin II which would be released in September 2017. Pre-release materials related to the game had impressed Wizards, and the publisher contacted Larian asking if they still had interest in Baldur's Gate III. Larian accepted, and while working to wrap up the release stage of development for Divinity: Original Sin II, a small group gathered to develop the design document to present to Wizards with their ideas for the new Baldur's Gate. The game will be based on the [[Editions of Dungeons & Dragons#Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition|5th edition of the D&D ruleset]], though will include tweaks and modifications that Larian found necessary in translating into a video game. For example, the combat system is expected to be weighed more in favor of the player than in the tabletop version, to make the game more enjoyable. Larian Studios first teased Baldur's Gate III in the week prior to E3 2019, and formally revealed it during Google's presentation on the Stadia platform just ahead of E3, confirming its release both for Microsoft Windows and on Stadia. A prequel tabletop adventure Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus was published by Wizards of the Coast in September 2019. Descent into Avernus takes place roughly 100 years after the events of Baldur's Gate II, and Baldur's Gate III's story takes place immediately following the events in the Descent into Avernus tabletop module. References External links * 3 Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games Category:Role-playing video games Category:Stadia games Category:Upcoming video games Category:Video game sequels Category:Video games developed in Belgium Category:Windows games Category:Wizards of the Coast games